Official Valet App Rundown: From 6 Competitors To 3 In Under 2 Years

Valet apps took the parking world by storm in 2014. Venture capitalists had invested over $12 million in these companies by November of that year. We were so interested in this emerging technology that we wrote one of our first articles just laying out the landscape.

The initial growth of these companies left parking operators wondering how they would effect off-street parking. Did they help sell excess inventory? Were they a threat to the industry? What is the liability involved in working with a valet app?

A lot has happened since then. Three out ofsix companies we featured in our original article have since shut down operations because their business model proved difficult to sustain. In this article you’ll find updates on those companies and how the on-demand valet market has changed since 2014.

3. Valet Anywhere

Website: www.valetanywhere.comFunding: $1.35 MillionLead 2015 Investors: No new major investmentsStatus: Operating in New York City – Manhattan and parts of BrooklynApp: iOS, AndroidFounder: Robert Kao

Since 2014: Valet Anywhere changed directions after their first year of business, shifting from on-demand transient parking to only long-term parking. Their CEO determined that long-term parking is a more scalable business.

5. Carbon

Since 2014: San Francisco-based Carbon, formerly Caarbon, shut down August 2015 to refocus their business.

“For on-demand parking, every time you’re parking a car, you’re spending two, three, even five times more. It’s very venture capital subsidized,” Cunningham told Business Insider. “Carbon didn’t want to play that game anymore.”

6. SpotLight Parking

Since 2014: Parking management company VPNE Parking Solutions invested in SpotLight Parking in October 2015 to gain an edge over on-demand valet apps Luxe and Zirx. The SpotLight app is now available for download and offers a few “hotspots” at VPNE garages in Boston.

Kevin J. Leary, President of VPNE, invested in SpotLight to stay competitive against Luxe and Zirx. “They were trying to create a business out of our garages,” Leary told The Boston Globe. “They’re disruptors. Eventually, they’ll be parking operators.”

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